Installation of average speed cameras on the A16 Crowland bypass is nearing completion and they will go live after four to six weeks of testing.

Civic leaders welcome the £192,000 camera system as a first step towards improving safety on a stretch of road that has claimed eight lives since it opened in 2010.

One of the average speed cameras on the A16 at Crowland. SG071116-204TW

But they want extra safety measures, including a roundabout at the B1166 junction and steps to stop drivers using James Road as a race track to overtake lorries on the A16.

Lincolnshire Road Safety partnership spokesman John Siddle said there are six cameras spaced between Cowbit village roundabout on the Moulton Chapel road and the roundabout just south of Crowland on James Road. The distance covered is about 6.5 miles.

Mr Siddle said: “When we place average cameras in similar rural settings we are aiming to alter driver behaviour and primarily discourage high speed and those overtakes that lead to conflict on the road.

“Prior to placing the average cameras on the A52 at Ropsley we had four fatals, nine serious and 33 injury collisions in six years. That camera system has been in place for six years and since they went live there has been zero fatal, four serious and 16 slight injury collisions. Having had that success at Ropsley, our hope is that it is repeated on the Crowland bypass and further lives are not wasted as a result.”

When we place average cameras in similar rural settings we are aiming to alter driver behaviour and primarily discourage high speed and those overtakes that lead to conflict on the road.

John Siddle

County councillor Nigel Pepper, who represents Crowland, said: “I welcome the introduction of average speed cameras along the A16 near Crowland, this type of enforcement is extremely effective in ensuring motorists adhere to the speed limit.

“However we must not run away with the fact that this is the answer as the main concern is the scary A16/B1166 Crowland junction where serious road traffic collisions have occurred and dangerous manoeuvres are witnessed on a daily basis.”

Coun Pepper said Lincolnshire Technical Services Partnership is looking at all options to make that junction safer and a feasibility study is due to be completed by December 31. That move follows a site visit by key figures, including MP John Hayes, on April 28.

Councillors are calling for a range of safety steps to cut the risk of accidents on the A16, James Road and the former A1073, which has been described as a “rat run”.

Road safety chiefs hope average speed cameras will make the A16 safer. SG071116-207TW

District councillor Angela Harrison said “through-cutters” use James Road to overtake traffic on the A16, often when stuck behind speed governed HGVs, and wants mini-roundabouts placed at Peterborough Road, Thorney Road and Postland Road.

She said roundabouts would give local traffic rights of way onto James Road and that would deter A16 traffic from using it.

Parish council chairman David Ringham said there are two junctions on the A16 that should have been roundabouts but nobody listened to the local knowledge before the road was built.